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GABORONE, Botswana — Violent extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are growing in size and influence across Africa, fueling worries that as they improve their tactics they could attack the U.S. or Western allies. U.S. defense and military officials described the threats and their concerns about growing instability in Africa, where a number of coups have put ruling juntas in control, leading to the ouster of American troops and a decline in U.S. intelligence gathering. "Threats like Wagner, terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations continue to sow instability in multiple regions," Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in opening remarks Tuesday at a conference of African chiefs of defense in Botswana. "I think we can all agree, what happens in one part of the world, does not stay in one part of the world." Wagner is the Russian mercenary group that has gone into African nations to provide security as Western forces, including from the U.S. and France, have been pushed out. The group is known for its brutality, and human rights organizations have accused its members of raping and killing civilians. While Brown only touched briefly on the terror threat in the region, it was a key topic among others at the conference and spurred questions from military chiefs in the audience after his speech. They wanted to know what the U.S. could do to help stem the spread of insurgents in West Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel. This is the first time that the chiefs of defense conference has been held on African soil. And it is the first time the U.S. joint chiefs chairman has visited a sub-Saharan country since 1994, when Gen. John Shalikashvili visited Rwanda and Zaire. A senior U.S. defense official said al-Qaida linked groups — such as al-Shabab in Somalia and Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, in the Sahel region — are the largest and most financially viable insurgencies. JNIM is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo, which it uses as hubs to rest, recuperate, get financing and gather weapons but also has increased attacks there. At the same time, the Islamic State group has key cells in West Africa and in the Sahel. The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a threat assessment, said the Islamic State cells were getting increasing direction from the group's leadership that relocated to northern Somalia. That has included how to kidnap Westerners for ransom, how to learn better military tactics, how to hide from drones and how to building their own small quadcopters. A U.S. military airstrike in Somalia on May 31 targeted Islamic State militants and killed three, according to U.S. Africa Command. U.S. officials have said the strike targeted the group's leader, but the defense official said Monday that it's still unclear if he was killed. Roughly 200 Islamic State insurgents are in Somalia, so they are vastly outnumbered by al-Shabab, which has grown in size to between 10,000 and 12,000. The growth of the insurgent groups within Africa signals the belief by both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that the continent is a ripe location for jihadism, where extremist ideology can take root and expand, the official said. And it comes as the U.S. was ordered to pull out its 1,000 troops from Niger in the wake of last July's coup and also about 75 from Chad. Those troop cuts, which shut down a critical U.S. counterterrorism and drone base at Agadez, hamper intelligence gathering in Niger, said Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command. Surveillance operations before the coup gave the U.S. a greater ability to get intelligence on insurgent movements. Now, he said, the key goal is a safe and secure withdrawal of personnel and equipment from both Agadez and a smaller U.S. facility near the airport. Langley met with Niger's top military chief, Brig. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, during the conference, and said military-to-military communications continue but that it's yet to be determined how much the new transitional government will deal with the U.S. Currently, he said, there are about 400 troops still at Agadez and 200 near the airport. But, he added that "as we're in transition and resetting, we need to maintain capabilities to get enough intelligence to identify warnings of a threat out there." Langley said the U.S. is still trying to assess the militant groups' capabilities as they grow. "Yes, they've been growing in number. Have they been growing in capability where they can do what we call external ops attacks on the homeland and attacks on allies, whether we're talking about Europe or anyone? That's what we closely watch," he said. "I'd say it has the potential as they grow in numbers." Both Langley and Brown spoke more extensively about the need for the U.S. and African nations to communicate more effectively and work together to solve security and other problems. And Brown acknowledged that the U.S. needs to "do better at understanding the perspectives of others, ensuring their voices and expertise don't get drowned out." The U.S has struggled to maintain relations with African nations as many foster growing ties to Russia and China. Some African countries have expressed frustration with the U.S. for forcing issues, such as democracy and human rights, that many see as hypocrisy, given Washington's close ties to some autocratic leaders elsewhere. Meanwhile, Russia offers security assistance without interfering in politics, making it an appealing partner for military juntas that seized power in places like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years.

JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army — a landmark ruling seeking to end a system that has allowed them to avoid enlistment into compulsory military service. Roughly 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 13% of Israel's population and oppose enlistment because they believe studying full time in religious seminaries is their most important duty. An enlistment exemption for the ultra-Orthodox goes back to the founding of Israel in 1948, when small numbers of gifted scholars were exempt from the draft. But with a push from politically powerful religious parties, those numbers have swelled over the decades. The court said the exemptions were illegal in 2017, but repeated extensions and government delay tactics have prevented a replacement law from being passed.  Two parties belonging to the Haredim, or "god-fearing" in Hebrew, are essential parts of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile coalition, but the broad exemptions from mandatory military service have reopened a deep divide in the country and infuriated much of the general public during the war in Gaza. More than 600 soldiers have been killed since Hamas' October 7 attack. Many reserve soldiers are starting their second tour of duty. What does the ruling mean for Netanyahu's government? Netanyahu's coalition holds a slim majority of 64 seats in the 120-member parliament, often requiring him to capitulate to the demands of smaller parties like the ultra-Orthodox. If those parties leave the government, the country would likely be forced into new elections this fall. Netanyahu's popularity is low as the war in Gaza drags into its ninth month.  Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf heads one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu's coalition. In a post on X, Goldknopf called the Supreme Court's ruling "very unfortunate and disappointing," but did not say whether his party would leave the government. The chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, denounced the ruling and said religious study was "our secret weapon against all enemies." The court this year temporarily froze state subsidies for seminaries where exempted ultra-Orthodox men study. Along with the enlistment decision, the court also ruled Tuesday that that money should be permanently suspended. Many religious seminaries depend on government funding and "the general assumption is that the government will not survive this crisis," said Barak Medina, a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an expert on constitutional law. What did the courts rule? Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women, who serve three and two years, respectively, in active duty, as well as reserve duty until around age 40. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that compulsory military service applies to the ultra-Orthodox just like any other Israeli. The judges said that allowing a certain community a "sweeping avoidance" of service amounted to discrimination. "Discrimination regarding the most precious thing of all – life itself – is the worst kind," the justices wrote in their opinion. In 2017, the Supreme Court struck down a law that codified draft exemptions. Repeated extensions of the law and government tactics to delay a replacement law have dragged on for years. Israel's judiciary plays a large role in checking the government's executive power. Netanyahu attempted to overhaul the judiciary last year, spurring massive protests across the country before a major part of the overhaul was struck down. When will this go into effect? It will be challenging for the army integrate a larger number of ultra-Orthodox deeply opposed to service into its ranks. Among Israel's Jewish majority, mandatory military service is largely seen as a melting pot and a rite of passage. The ultra-Orthodox say that integrating into the army will threaten their generations-old way of life, and that their devout lifestyle and dedication to upholding the Jewish commandments protect Israel as much as a strong army does. The courts did not set numbers for enlistment in their ruling, but Israel's attorney general's office suggested that at least 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers enlist in the coming year. The court said in its ruling that some 63,000 ultra-Orthodox students are eligible for enlistment. For decades, the army has attempted to accommodate ultra-Orthodox soldiers by creating separate units that allow them to maintain religious practices, including minimizing interaction with women. One of the units created for this purpose, Netzah Yehudah, faced possible U.S. sanctions over their treatment of Palestinians, though the U.S. eventually decided not to impose sanctions. What impact will this have on the war in Gaza? The ruling will have little immediate effect on the war in Gaza, where more than 37,600 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The number of ultra-Orthodox who might enlist because of the ruling is too small to have a significant impact on day-to-day fighting. Medina, the law professor, said that if the ruling topples the government, it could give Netanyahu more leeway to reach a deal for a cease-fire that could end the war in Gaza. "Currently, one of the main reasons he's prevented from reaching an agreement for the end of the war is because it will mean the end of his coalition," said Medina. If the ultra-Orthodox parties leave the coalition, Netanyahu has "nothing to lose," he said. And that could lead to a change in policy without the pressure from far-right ministers opposed to any kind of cease-fire. Netanyahu will also be under a lot of pressure to wrap up fighting if early elections are called, to avoid going into the elections without the hostages and while a war is still ongoing, Medina said.

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NEW DELHI — The Nigerian student only popped out to repair his phone, but he ended up in a New Delhi hospital, the latest victim of a brutal heat wave that has cost scores of lives, sent birds plummeting from the sky and tormented India's poorest workers. On that sweltering June day, the business administration student collapsed in the street and strangers rushed him to the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, one of the country's largest. When he was admitted, his body temperature had soared to more than 41 degrees Celsius and he was very dehydrated, said Seema Wasnik, head of RML's emergency medicine department. She immediately recognized the classic signs of heatstroke. More than 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases were recorded in India as a prolonged heat wave pushed temperatures above 40 C on most days since May, with some areas hitting peaks of nearly 50 C. The young Nigerian was lucky. The RML hospital is equipped with one of India's first specialist heatstroke units, and doctors immersed him in an ice bath for 20 minutes to lower his temperature before moving him onto a ventilator. His case was startling but not unusual - more than 30 patients have been treated in the unit since it opened in early May and five of those have died. Heatstroke is caused when the body's core temperature goes above 40.6 C. It can lead to long-term organ damage and death, and symptoms include rapid breathing, confusion or seizures, and nausea. The specialist unit at the RML hospital is equipped with ceramic bathtubs where patients can be cooled, along with ventilators and huge ice machines. Wasnik said the hospital's director decided to open the unit after seeing that meteorologists were predicting an extremely hot summer. "We hoped that once we set the precedent other (hospitals) would follow," she said. And they did, spurred to action also by health ministry instructions to prepare for the prolonged and deadly heat waves being forecast by weather experts. As well as Delhi's RML hospital, a heatstroke unit was also opened in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhubaneswar in Odisha state. These are the leading national hospitals in the country. Across India several other hospitals reserved beds and laid on extra staff to deal with heatstroke patients. "The attention now being given to the problem signals a commitment to act," said Srinath Reddy, an honorary distinguished professor associated with the Public Health Foundation of India, a health policy think tank. "There is now no scope for apathy and no excuse for inertia as the climate emergency is scorching its signature on human bodies," he said. 'Heat trap' cities Across Asia, billions of people were exposed this summer to deadly temperatures for days on end with scientists attributing the intensity and duration of these heat waves to human-driven climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. So far this summer, from March to June, at least 110 people have died from heat-related illnesses in India, including scores of election workers during the recent vote. Northwest and eastern India recorded more than twice the usual number of heat wave days. Hot winds during the day and relentlessly high temperatures at night meant there was no relief, and the agony was intensified for millions of the country's poorest citizens by water shortages and power cuts. Authorities described cities as "heat traps." And even as scattered rains began in late June, heralding the beginning of the monsoon season, Reddy said public pressure for more action to mitigate the effects of future heat waves would grow. "There is now an anxious public's demand for an effective government response and acceptance by pressured policymakers of the need to act with alacrity for protecting lives," said Reddy. Doctors from RML and AIIMS, Bhubaneswar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that more than 90% of the patients they treated for heat-related conditions were outdoor workers, including security guards, migrant laborers and street vendors. "Extreme heat aggravates existing income and health inequities," said Hisham Mundol, chief adviser at the Environmental Defense Fund, India. The poorest were unable to adjust their lifestyles to seek shelter from the heat by, for example, taking time off work, and also could not afford air conditioning, Mundol said. They were also more likely to seek help at crowded public hospitals, where services were under immense strain because of the number of heat-related cases. The extent of the problem was revealed in a nationwide survey of over 12,000 people across 20 states and union territories by the Centre for Rapid Insights (CRI), which showed that 45% of the households surveyed said at least one person fell ill from the heat in May. Of those affected, more than 67% had family members who were sick for more than five days, and the poorest people were hit particularly hard, the survey showed. Dillip Kumar Parida, medical superintendent at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, said his institute had also opened a critical care unit for heatstroke patients but more needed to be done to keep pace with the effects of runaway global warming. "The health system will have to prepare for that and stay ready so we are not caught by surprise like we were during COVID," he said. "Fighting with Mother Nature is impossible; we can only predict, prepare and spread awareness to deal with what is to come in the future," he said.

PARIS — Voters across mainland France have begun casting ballots Sunday in the first round of exceptional parliamentary election that could put France's government in the hands of nationalist, far-right forces for the first time since the Nazi era. The outcome of the two-round election, which will wrap up July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine and how France's nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed. Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron's leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally party has tapped and fueled that discontent, notably via online platforms like TikTok, and dominated all preelection opinion polls. A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to the pro-business Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic. After a blitz campaign marred by rising hate speech, voting began early in France's overseas territories, and polling stations open in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night. Macron called the early election after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally, which has historic ties to racism and antisemitism and is hostile toward France's Muslim community. It was an audacious gamble that French voters who were complacent about the European Union election would be jolted into turning out for moderate forces in a national election to keep the far right out of power. Instead, preelection polls suggest that the National Rally is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system known as "cohabitation." While Macron has said he won't step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage. The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others. In the past such tactical maneuvers helped keep far-right candidates from power. But now support for Le Pen's party has spread deep and wide. Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use the powers of prime minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war with Russia. His party has historical ties to Russia. The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics say this undermines fundamental human rights and is a threat to France's democratic ideals. Meanwhile, huge public spending promises by the National Rally and especially the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and ignited worries about France's heavy debt, already criticized by EU watchdogs.

NEW YORK — The monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride reaches its exuberant grand finale on Sunday, bringing rainbow-laden revelers to the streets for marquee parades in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere across the globe. The wide-ranging festivities will function as both jubilant parties and political protests, as participants recognize the community's gains while also calling attention to recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, such as bans on transgender health care, passed by Republican-led states. This year, tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are also seeping into the celebrations, exposing divisions within a community that is often aligned on political issues. Already this month, pro-Palestinian activists have disrupted pride parades held in Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia. Several groups participating in marches Sunday said they would seek to center the victims of the war in Gaza, spurring pushback from supporters of Israel. "It is certainly a more active presence this year in terms of protest at Pride events," said Sandra Pérez, the executive director of NYC Pride. "But we were born out of a protest." The first pride march was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising, a riot that began with a police raid on a Manhattan gay bar. In addition to the NYC Pride March, the nation's largest, the city will also play host Sunday to the Queer Liberation March, an activism-centered event launched five years ago amid concerns that the more mainstream parade had become too corporate. Another one of the world's largest Pride celebrations will also kick off Sunday in San Francisco. Additional parades are scheduled in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle. On top of concerns about protests, federal agencies have warned that foreign terrorist organizations and their supporters could target the parades and adjacent venues. A heavy security presence is expected at all of the events.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NAIROBI, Kenya — In the heart of the crowded Kibera neighborhood in Kenya's capital, Jacinter Awino shares a small tin house with her husband and four children. She envies those who have escaped such makeshift homes to more permanent dwellings under the government's affordable housing plan. The 33-year-old housewife and her mason husband are unable to raise the $3,800 purchase price for a one-room government house. Their tin one was constructed for $380 and lacks a toilet and running water. "Those government houses are like a dream for us, but our incomes simply don't allow it," Awino said. The government plans to build 250,000 houses each year, aimed at eventually closing a housing deficit that World Bank data puts at 2 million units. The plan was launched in 2022, but no data is available on the number of houses already completed. Kenya's urban areas are home to a third of the country's total population of more than 50 million. Of those in urban areas, 70% live in informal settlements marked by a lack of basic infrastructure, according to UN-Habitat. Some urban Kenyans have moved into a government housing project on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, where one-bedroom units sold for $7,600 last year. Felister Muema, a 55-year-old former caterer, paid a deposit of about 10% through a savings plan and is expected to pay off the balance in 25 years. "This is where I have started living my life," she said. "If I do something here, it is permanent. If I plant a flower, no one is going to tell me: 'Uproot it, I don't want it there.' This gives me life." But experts say construction and financing need to change and speed up for Kenya's housing deficit to be met. "We cannot rely on the traditional mortgage route," said UN-Habitat's head of East Africa, Ishaku Maitumbi, who recommended a cooperative savings system that is popular with Kenyan businesses. For home construction, some are exploring the emerging technology of 3-D printing. A machine layers special mortar to form concrete walls and cuts the building time by several days compared to traditional brick and mortar work. A company, 14Trees, has used the technology to build a showcase house in Nairobi and 10 houses in coastal Kilifi County. Company CEO Francois Perrot said the technology can help address the huge housing need on the African continent, but it will take time. "If we want to clear that backlog, we need to build differently, we need to build at scale, with speed, and with low-carbon materials, and this is what construction 3-D printing makes possible," Perrot said. The company's homes, like many traditionally built ones, remain beyond the reach of most Kenyans. A two-bedroom house costs $22,000 and a three-bedroom one costs $29,000. But Perrot asserted that acquiring a printer locally and making mortar locally would help bring down costs. "People don't really worry or care about technology. What they care about is the design, the price, the way it is set up, the layout of the building," he said. Nickson Otieno, an architect and founder of Niko Green, a sustainability consulting firm, said such new technology has great potential but remains limited. "It will still take a long time for it to compete with brick and mortar," he said. "Brick and mortar, everybody can build their house anywhere they are. They are able to access the materials, they are able to access the tradesmen who build the house and they can plan the cost." Financing remains a challenge. In June 2023, Kenya's parliament passed a finance law with a new housing tax of 1.5% on gross income, to be used to build affordable housing. The law is being challenged in court. Critics argue the tax is discriminatory as it applies only to those with formal employment. If the tax is rejected, Kenya's government would need to look elsewhere for funding to build affordable housing. The housing tax is one of the issues causing discontent among young people who have organized a series of protests that included the extraordinary storming of parliament Tuesday. More than 20 people were killed as police opened fire. President William Ruto has defended the need for the tax. "We have said that affordable housing, social housing is a right," he said earlier this year in response to the legal challenge.

NANTERRE, France — One year after a French teenager with North African origins was killed by police — a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France — his mother led a silent march Saturday to pay homage to her son. It comes at a politically fraught time. Hate speech is blighting the campaign for snap parliamentary elections taking place this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to boost police powers to use their weapons and has historic ties to racism and antisemitism is leading in the polls. Several hundred family members, friends and supporters gathered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to remember 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer at a traffic check on June 27, 2023. Within hours of his death, Merzouk, a delivery driver from a working-class neighborhood, became a symbol. For many across France, he was the embodiment of young French Black and North African men who, studies show, face police checks and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts. ''My son was executed,'' his mother, Mounia, told the crowd. "When I go back home, no one is there. I don't have my baby anymore. When I go to his room, it's empty.'' She expressed fear that she might run into the police officer who killed her son and has been released pending further investigation. Friends wore white T-shirts with Merzouk's photo, and fellow residents of his housing project held a banner reading "Justice for Nahel." The march ended at the spot where he was killed, and an imam sang and read a prayer. There was no visible police presence, though organizers of the march recruited guards to ensure security for the event. Merzouk's mother asked politicians to stay away, to avoid politicking or tensions the day before France's parliamentary elections. On Sunday, French voters will cast ballots in the first round of snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that could lead to the country's first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation. French opinion polls suggest the National Rally party could dominate the next parliament after the July 7 second round and get the prime minister's job. In that scenario, centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027 but in a sharply weakened role. "This march, happening now, it is a powerful symbol," said Assa Traore, who has been fighting for justice since her brother Adama died in the custody of French police in 2016. "It means that history can't write itself without us. We, from the working-class neighborhoods, are the first-hand victims of these elections," said the 39-year-old with Malian roots who marched alongside Merzouk's family. "We ... are afraid every day that our sons, brothers, or husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily life.'' Merzouk's death, which was captured on video, stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged suburbs, many of whom are French-born youth with immigrant family backgrounds. Fueled by TikTok, riots spread with unprecedented speed before a mass police crackdown. The unrest caused, according to French authorities, more than $1 billion in damage. The officer who fired the shot cited self-defense, and an extreme-right figure started a crowdfunding campaign for the policeman that drew $1.6 million before being shut down. Citing security concerns, notably in impoverished areas in French suburbs or "banlieues," the far-right National Rally wants to give a specific new legal status to police. If police officers use their arms during an intervention, they would be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and have to prove they acted in self-defense. The left-wing coalition New Popular Front, meanwhile, wants to ban the use of some police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit. Among those marching Sunday was Lina Marsouk, a 15-year-old student from Nanterre who described watching relatives undergo brutal police checks. "I have been traumatized by these scenes,'' she said. Born and raised in France and with Algerian roots, she also described being told ''go back to your country'' while visiting nearby Paris. ''I have always lived here,'' she said. "These comments are hurtful. I feel sad and disappointed that France turned this way."

SAN FRANCISCO — In an increasingly divisive political sphere, Becka Robbins focuses on what she knows best — books. Operating out of a tiny room in Fabulosa Books in San Francisco's Castro District, one of the oldest gay neighborhoods in the United States, Robbins uses donations from customers to ship boxes of books across the country to groups that want them. In an effort she calls "Books Not Bans," she sends titles about queer history, sexuality, romance and more — many of which are increasingly hard to come by in the face of a rapidly growing movement by conservative advocacy groups and lawmakers to ban them from public schools and libraries. "The book bans are awful, the attempt at erasure," Robbins said. She asked herself how she could get these books into the hands of the people who need them the most. Beginning last May, she started raising money and looking for recipients. Her books have gone to places like a pride center in west Texas and an LGBTQ-friendly high school in Alabama. Customers are especially enthusiastic about helping Robbins send books to places in states like Florida, Texas and Oklahoma, often writing notes of support to include in the packages. Over 40% of all book bans from July 2022 to June 2023 were in Florida, more than any other state. Behind Florida are Texas and Missouri, according to a report by PEN America, a nonprofit literature advocacy group. Book bans and attempted bans have been hitting record highs, according to the American Library Association. And the efforts now extend as much to public libraries as school libraries. Because the totals are based on media accounts and reports submitted by librarians, the association regards its numbers as snapshots, with many bans left unrecorded. PEN America's report said 30% of the bans include characters of color or discuss race and racism, and 30% have LGBTQ+ characters or themes. The most sweeping challenges often originate with conservative organizations, such as Moms for Liberty, which has organized banning efforts nationwide and called for more parental control over books available to children. Moms for Liberty is not anti-LGBTQ+, co-founder Tiffany Justice has told The Associated Press. But about 38% of book challenges that "directly originated" from the group have LGBTQ+ themes, according to the library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. Justice said Moms for Liberty challenges books that are sexually explicit, not because they cover LGBTQ+ topics. Among those topping banned lists have been Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, George Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Robbins said it's more important than ever to makes these kinds of books available to everyone. "Fiction teaches us how to dream," Robbins said. "It teaches us how to connect with people who are not like ourselves, it teaches us how to listen and emphasize." She's sent 740 books so far, with each box worth $300 to $400, depending on the titles. At the new Rose Dynasty Center in Lakeland, Florida, the books donated by Fabulosa are already on the shelves, said Jason DeShazo, a drag queen known as Momma Ashley Rose who runs the LGBTQ+ community center. DeShazo is a family-friendly drag performer and has long hosted drag story times to promote literacy. He uses puppets to address themes of being kind, dealing with bullies and giving back to the community. DeShazo hopes to provide a safe space for events, support groups and health clinics, and to build a library of banned books. "I don't think a person of color should have to search so hard for an amazing book about history of what our Black community has gone through," DeShazo said. "Or for someone who is queer to find a book that represents them." Robbins' favorite books to send are youth adult queer romances, a rapidly growing genre as conversations about LGBTQ+ issues have become much more mainstream than a decade ago. "The characters are just like regular kids — regular people who are also queer, but they also get to fall in love and be happy," Robbins said.

NEW YORK — When Damien Carchipulla started his first school year in New York City in September, the first grader's family was living in a Manhattan hotel for migrant families. In the 10 months since, the family of four from Ecuador has moved shelters three times under a policy Mayor Eric Adams imposed in the fall that limits the number of days migrants can stay in a single place. Every 60 days they must give up their shelter beds and reapply for housing or leave the system. With a fourth move expected in a matter of weeks, Damien's mother Kimberly Carchipulla hopes the family isn't pulled too far from the 6-year-old's school in Harlem this summer. Her son is set to attend a summer program starting in July. "A lot has changed because new laws were put in place," Carchipulla said in Spanish while picking up Damien after school one day. "They get stressed. They get upset. Every 60 days, it's a new home." The New York City school year ended Wednesday, but for thousands of migrant families the shuffle from shelter to shelter continues. With it come the concerns about how they'll navigate their children's education needs, both this summer and into the next school year. "These families were already coming in with a great deal of trauma, which was impacting their children's attendance at school and their ability to engage once they're there," said Sarah Jonas, a vice president at Children's Aid, a nonprofit that provides mentoring, health services and after-school programs at city schools. "With that added burden of the 60-day rule, we've seen even more disruption for our families getting these eviction notices and all of the anxiety that comes with that." Like the Carchipullas, most families chose to stick with the same school through the year, even if they were reassigned to shelters in a different part of the city. The tradeoff for many was longer and more complex commutes, leading to children who were exhausted before the school day even started. Absenteeism spiked too, as parents struggled to get their children to school on time. Carchipulla, who is 23, counts her family among the lucky ones: the three moves they made during the school year were all to other midtown Manhattan hotels, so her son's daily commute remained relatively the same. For the grandchildren of Rosie Arias, the moves were more disruptive. The 55-year-old from Ecuador said her daughter arrived in January with her 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. They were immediately placed in a shelter and enrolled in a local school where Spanish was widely spoken. But when their 60 days ran out, they had to move to another shelter and transfer to another school, Arias said. Then when the family secured their own apartment in Brooklyn, the children had to switch schools again, this time to a smaller one where few people spoke Spanish. "As a grandmother, I'm worried. The children don't want to go to school. They're not adjusting because of the language and because they don't have friends.," Arias said in Spanish. "They cry." School officials didn't have a final tally for how many migrant students were affected by the shelter time limits. As of the first week of May, 44% of migrant students had remained in the same shelter and same school since February 14, according to Tamara Mair, a senior director with Project Open Arms, the district's program supporting asylum seekers and other new students in temporary housing. Another 40% of migrant students moved shelters but remained enrolled at the same school, while 4% moved both schools and shelters, she said. Roughly 10% left the school system entirely, with the "vast majority" of those dropping out because they left the city. District officials will be keeping tabs on migrant families in the shelters through the summer, Mair said. "The one thing we want to remain constant for our kids is school," she said. "But we also want to support our families with their choices, because the families have the right to remain in their school, or they may choose to go to a new school closer to their new residence." Adams, a Democrat, instituted shelter limits to encourage migrant families to leave the city's emergency shelter system, which includes huge tent shelters and converted hotels that have swollen with thousands of newcomers to the U.S. Over the summer, more needs to be done to prepare newly arriving families for the next school year, immigrant advocates say. That includes better outreach to migrant parents and more investment in translation services, said Liza Schwartzwald, a director at the New York Immigration Coalition. Schools also need more specialists to assess and help get migrant students up to grade level in their studies, said Natasha Quiroga, director of education policy at the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. Damien Carchipulla's mother remains optimistic about her son's future. Eventually, she said, the family hopes to save up enough money for their own place, perhaps in Queens, where her husband recently found steady work. "He is learning more and more every day," Kim Carchipulla said of her son. "Even if he misses school, his teacher tells me, he catches up quickly."

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JAMMU, India — The putrid smell of burning garbage wafts for miles from the landfill on the outskirts of Jammu in a potentially toxic miasma fed by the plastics, industrial, medical and other waste generated by a city of some 740,000 people. But a handful of waste pickers ignore both the fumes and suffocating heat to sort through the rubbish, seeking anything they can sell to earn at best the equivalent of $4 a day. "If we don't do this, we don't get any food to eat," said 65-year-old Usmaan Shekh. "We try to take a break for a few minutes when it gets too hot, but mostly we just continue till we can't." Shekh and his family are among the estimated 1.5 million to 4 million people who scratch out a living searching through India's waste — and climate change is making a hazardous job more dangerous than ever. In Jammu, a northern Indian city in the Himalayan foothills, temperatures this summer have regularly topped 43 degrees Celsius. At least one person who died in northern India's recent heat wave was identified as a garbage picker. The landfills themselves seethe internally as garbage decomposes, and the rising heat of summer speeds and intensifies the process. That increases emissions of gases such as methane and carbon dioxide that are dangerous to breathe. And almost all landfill fires come in summer, experts say, and can burn for days. At the Jammu landfill, small fires dotted the massive pile, sending up plumes of smoke as two men hauled a frayed tarp loaded with garbage on the day Associated Press journalists visited. A 6-year-old boy clutched an armful of plastic sandals. As other pickers occasionally sheltered from the heat, birds wheeled overhead, occasionally touched down in their own search for scraps. India generates at least 62 million tons of waste annually, according to federal government records, and some of its landfills are literal mountains of garbage, like the Ghaziabad landfill outside New Delhi. And while a 2016 law made it mandatory to segregate waste so that hazardous material doesn't make its way to landfills, the law has been poorly enforced, adding to the risk of waste pickers. "Since they mostly just use their hands, they are already contaminated by touching everything from diapers to diabetes syringes," said Bharati Chaturvedi, founder of the New Delhi-based Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group. Chaturvedi, who has worked with waste pickers for more than two decades, said extreme heat has added new risks to waste pickers who are already victims of social discrimination and appalling work conditions. "It's been a terrible, terrible, terrible year," she said. "They already expect to suffer from the heat and that gives them a lot of anxiety, because they don't know if they'll make it, if they'll survive it (the summer)." Chaturvedi said this year's heat has "been the most catastrophic thing one could imagine" adding that "It's really very sad to look at how the poor are trying to live somehow, just take their bodies and try to reach the end of this heat wave in some form of being intact." Heat planning and public health experts say that people who are forced to work outdoors are at most risk due to prolonged heat exposure. Heatstroke, cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney diseases are some of the risks from working outdoors during high heat. Waste pickers "are among the most vulnerable and highly exposed to heat," said Abhiyant Tiwari, who leads the climate resilience team at the Natural Resources Defense Council's India program. In New Delhi, some people who work the capital city's estimated 4.2 million annual tons of garbage have cut back from two meals a day to just one, said Ruksana Begum, a 41-year-old waste picker at the Bhalswa landfill in the city. "They are trying to avoid work because of the heat since if they go to work they end up spending more at the hospital than for their food," Begum said. Tiwari and Chaturvedi both said it's essential to give waste pickers access to a regular water supply, shade, or a relatively cool building near the landfills. They should also be encouraged to avoid working at high heat and given prompt medical care when they need it, they said. Tiwari said India has taken significant steps to devise heat action plans but implementing the plans all across the country is a challenge. "As a society, we have a responsibility to protect them (garbage pickers)," said Tiwari. Simple steps can help, such as offering them water if they're standing outside people's homes, rather than asking them to leave, he said. Geeta Devi, a 55-year-old garbage picker also at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, says when she feels dizzy in the heat she takes shelter and sometimes someone gives her water or food. But she has to work to earn the 150-200 rupees ($1.80 to $2.40) per day that puts food on the table for her children. "It is difficult to do my job because of the heat. But I have no other job," she said.

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NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing and the families of crash victims as a July 7 deadline looms for the Justice Department to decide whether to criminally charge the plane maker, according to two people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.   Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers on Thursday to discuss the government's finding that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the sources said. That deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), had shielded it from criminal prosecution over two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and a crash in 2019 in Ethiopia that together killed 346 people.   Separately, federal prosecutors are slated to meet with victims' family members on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, according to the second person. U.S. officials are working on a "tight timeline," according to an email sent by the DOJ and reviewed by Reuters.   Boeing lawyers present case Boeing's lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis on Thursday presented their case to officials from the Deputy Attorney General's office that a prosecution would be unwarranted and that there is no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said.  Such appeals from companies in the DOJ's crosshairs are typical when negotiating to resolve a government investigation.   Officials want input from family members as they consider how to proceed, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department's criminal fraud division and the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas will attend the Sunday meeting, it said.  Spokespeople for the DOJ and Boeing declined to comment.  Boeing has previously said it has "honored the terms" of the settlement and formally told prosecutors it disagrees with the finding that it violated the agreement.   Prosecutors recommend criminal charges U.S. prosecutors have recommended to senior Justice Department officials that criminal charges be brought against Boeing after finding the plane maker violated the 2021 settlement, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.  The two sides are in discussions over a potential resolution to the Justice Department's investigation, and there is no guarantee officials will move forward with charges, they said last week.   The deliberations follow a January 5 flight during which a panel blew out on a Boeing plane just two days before the company's DPA expired. The incident exposed ongoing safety and quality issues at Boeing.  Boeing had been poised to escape prosecution over a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration arising from the 2018-2019 fatal crashes.   Prosecutors had agreed to drop a criminal charge so long as Boeing overhauled its compliance practices and submitted regular reports over a three-year period. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.  In May, officials determined the company breached the agreement, exposing Boeing to prosecution. The DOJ said in a court filing in Texas that the plane maker had failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations."